In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

We will always respect your privacy, dignity and your religious and cultural beliefs particularly when intimate examinations are advisable. These will only be carried out with your express agreement, and you will be offered a chaperone to attend the examination if you so wish.

You may also request a chaperone when making the appointment or on arrival at the surgery (please let the receptionist know) or at any time during the consultation.

If you would like a chaperone to be present during an intimate physical examination, please let us know.

We have specially trained staff members who are trained in this regard, if they are not available at the time of your appointment, you may need to re book your appointment.

Making a Complaint

Most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily, often at the time they arise with the person concerned and this may be the approach you try first.

Where you are not able to resolve your complaint in this way and wish to make a formal complaint you should do so, preferably in writing, Complaints Forms are also available at Reception, as soon as possible after the event and ideally within a few days, as this helps us to establish what happened more easily. In any event, this should be

Within 12 months of the incident,

or within 12 months of you discovering that you giving as much detail as you can.

If you are a registered patient you can complain about your own care. You are unable to complain about someone else’s treatment without their written authority.

Send your written complaint to:

The Practice Manager, Green Meadows Surgery,

Brook House, Heatherwood Hospital, Brook Avenue, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7GB

What we do next

We look to settle complaints as soon as possible.

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and aim to have looked into the matter within 28 working days.  You may then receive a formal reply in writing, or you may be invited to meet with the person(s) concerned to attempt to resolve the issue.  If the matter is likely to take longer than this we will let you know, and keep you informed as the investigation progresses.

When looking into a complaint we attempt to see what happened and why, to see if there is something we can learn from this and make it possible for you to discuss the issue with those involved if you would like to do so.

When the investigations are complete your complaint will be determined and a final response sent to you.

Where your complaint involves more than one organisation (e.g. social services) we will liaise with that organisation so that you receive one coordinated reply.  We may need your consent to do this.  Where your complaint has been sent initially to an incorrect organisation, we may seek your consent to forward this to the correct person to deal with.

The final response letter will include details of the result of your complaint and your right to escalate the matter further if you remain dissatisfied with the response.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality.  If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it.

Please ask at reception for the Complaints Form which contains a suitable authority for the patient to sign to enable the complaint to proceed.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident it may still be possible to deal with the complaint.  Please provide the precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in your covering letter.

Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the circumstances above apply.

We may still need to correspond directly with the patient or may be able to deal directly with the third party, and this depends on the wording of the authority provided.

If you are Dissatisfied with the Outcome

You have the right to approach the Ombudsman. The contact details are:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Tel: 0345 0154033

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

You may also approach PALS for help or advice;

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) provide confidential advice and support, helping you to sort out any concerns you may have about the care we provide, guiding you through the different services available from the NHS.

Primary Advice and Liaison Service

Wexham Park Hospital
Wexham
Slough
Berkshire
SL2 4HL

Telephone: 01753 636808

The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

• To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

Purpose:
This annual statement will be generated each year in June in accordance with the requirements of
the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and
related guidance. The report will be published on the practice website and will include the following
summary:
 Any infection transmission incidents and action taken (reported via the significant event
procedure.)
 Details of any infection control audits undertaken, a summary and actions taken.
 Control risk assessment undertaken.
 Details of staff training with regards to infection prevention and control
 Details of infection control advice to patients.
 Any review and update of policies, procedures and guidelines
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Lead
The lead for infection prevention and control at Green Meadows Surgery is Lead Nurse Caroline
Delaney.
The IPC Lead is supported by Dr Narinder Dass (GP) and Carol Pallett (Practice Manager)
The team keep updated with infection prevention and control practices and share any information,
as required with staff and patients
Significant Events
In the past year June 2023-June 2024 there have been no significant incidents related to infection
prevention and control
All staff have been vaccinated against covid 19 and all covid 19 precautions relating to staff and
patients have been followed using the latest covid guidelines.
Audits
Quarterly hand hygiene audits have been recorded.
Annual infection prevention control audit
Annual clinical waste audit
Risk Assessments
Premises
Hand hygiene
Staff Training
Staff Training
All new staff who have joined the practice in the last year have undertaken infection control and
hand hygiene training.
100% of all staff both clinical and non-clinical have completed their infection prevention and control
update training.
Responsibility
It is the responsibility of all staff members at Green Meadows Surgery to be familiar with this
statement and their roles and responsibilities under it
Policies Procedures and Guidelines
Those relating to infection prevention and control are updated 2 yearly or sooner depending on
national and IBC guidelines

Your information, what you need to know

This privacy notice explains why we collect information about you, how that information will be used, how we keep it safe and confidential and what your rights are in relation to this.

Why we collect information about you

Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and help us to protect your safety.

We collect and hold data for the purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and running our organisation which includes monitoring the quality of care that we provide. In carrying out this role we will collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services. We will keep your information in written form and/or in digital form.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy and Confidentiality Issues

As a GP practice, all of our GPs, staff and associated practitioners are committed to protecting your privacy and will only process data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) now known as the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, the Law Enforcement Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/680) (LED) and any applicable national Laws implementing them as amended from time to time. The legislation requires us to process personal data only if there is a legitimate basis for doing so and that any processing must be fair and lawful.

In addition, consideration will also be given to all applicable Law concerning privacy, confidentiality, the processing and sharing of personal data including the Human Rights Act 1998, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 as amended by the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015, the common law duty of confidentiality and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations.

Please view our detailed Privacy Policies here:

Green Meadows Surgery – Privacy Policy 

Green Meadows Surgery – Privacy Notice – Appendix A

Appendix B

Safeguarding refers to the proactive measures taken to protect the health, wellbeing, and human rights of individuals, particularly children and adults at risk, by preventing harm, abuse, and neglect. It encompasses a range of actions, including recognizing potential risks, responding to concerns, reporting suspected cases, recording information, and referring individuals to appropriate support service.

If you have any concerns for safeguarding for someone you know, please do raise them to any staff member or clinician within the building and it will be acted upon accordingly.

The safeguarding lead for the surgery is Dr Gurpreet Bhamra.

Child safeguarding

Berkshire local safeguarding children boards child protection procedures available at: http://www.proceduresonline.com/berks/

Adult Safeguarding

Berkshire safeguarding adults’ partnership board procedures available at: https://www.berkshiresafeguardingadults.co.uk/

The Royal Borough Windsor & Maidenhead Safeguarding Partnership website (rbwmsafeguardingpartnership.org.uk)

The safeguarding numbers should you wish to make a direct referral /raise a concern

For Bracknell

• For Children: 01344 352 005
• For Adults: 01344 351 500
• their email is mash@bracknell-forest.gov.uk

For Royal Borough of Windsor and maidenhead

• For children: 01628 683 150 and their email is MASH@achievingforchildren.org.uk
• For adults: 01628 683 744 and their email is adultsocialcarefrontdoor@rbwm.gov.uk

For any emergencies between 5pm-9am on weekdays, weekends and bank holidays you can also call the Social Care Emergency Duty Team on 01344 351 999

This number should be used for social care issues, including child protection and safeguarding adults concerns, when the main office is closed.

For immediate danger or risk to life, the emergency services number of 999 should be contacted

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.

Why do I need a Summary Care Record?

Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.

This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.

Who can see it?

Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.

How do I know if I have one?

Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by asking your GP

Do I have to have one?

No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.

More Information

For further information visit the NHS Care records website.

We are approved as a teaching practice and this means that we encourage everyone to look at what and how we do things and promote a learning environment.

We are a large practice and fortunate to have a wide and varied workload, which provides an excellent training ground for new doctors.

At present, we take on medical student and foundation trainees from a variety of training establishments. These are fully qualified doctors who will probably have just come out of hospital-based jobs, and are making the transition from a hospital position to that of a General Practitioner.

We could not offer this training without the co-operation of our patients. When seeing a Registrar, you may be asked for your permission to video your consultation. These videos are used as an aid to the Registrar’s training. It will help us improve their consultation skills.

Hopefully they will be full of new ideas and enthusiasm and we will help them to learn new skills necessary for General Practice.

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.